The media market is huge, thus the need for a media review market. This is our little contribution to that field.

Friday, February 5, 2016

YouTube and Podcast Subscription Update:

Velocities In Music 2.0
What was an active Album-Review channel, went on a 1-year break in September 2014 and returned in September 2015 with a brand new format. Instead album reviews, Jake and Tom are now doing longer, extensive discussion on musical topics in a Podcast format. And their podcast is available once-a-week.

The length varies between 30 minutes-close to 2 hours on occasion, which seems like a great format, and transition for them to remake/rebrand their channel/media about giving their opinions about music.

And they are not exactly doing Album Reviews, but more just music topics, like Band/Artist "Deep Dives" which is where they cover pretty thoroughly, an artist's catalog. Most recently they did 2 episodes on The Beatles, which I loved. Others such as Led Zeppelin, Modest Mouse and Nick Drake? I think it was, they have done.

But other things like favorite double albums, Monthly New Release roundups, favorite concerts, collecting Vinyl among many of the other theme-based discussions about music they've done have all more or less been engaging.

I used to like their videos, but honestly, I think this new format is even better. I really think both of them have a ton of opinions and points to say about music and certain artists, that wasn't exactly easy for them to do making Album Review videos of 10-15 minutes in length. And without time restrictions and given the ability to cover more broad subjects, it has really made their discussions even better.

I suppose part of it is time and age, and I also can't deny, some of the artists they talk about aren't necessarily my thing (but many of them still are. They're fans of The Dear Hunter, Menomena and dredg to name a few); but it seems their discussions and content is entertaining enough on average, I don't mind. Which I'd say this right now is my favorite weekly podcast, and I hope they are able to keep it up and do it every week, or at least on a pretty active basis.

The Only Music Podcast
This podcast is linked to the http://hasitleaked.com site. It has 2 regulars, a guy named Staffan and a woman named Louise who I guess are both from Sweden. Louise is somehow involved in the Music Industry, possibly for a record label. I know she's mentioned it a few times, but I forget the specifics.

edit: Louise runs an independent record label named Telegram Studios.

Staffan I guess is a producer and has done/made/remixed electronic music, as well worked with the likes of Radiohead and Muse (remixing).

But the podcast itself is surprisingly, pretty entertaining. The 2 of them have a good chemistry that is funny at times.

This podcast is made once-a-month, but it usually is pretty long (1-hour or longer).

As far as what they talk about? They cover a lot of mainstream music and music news, but they also will play tracks from underground artists. Prog? not a lot, but like I mentioned Staffan has worked with Muse. I remember he mentioned liking the new Foals album from 2015. In fact I think both of them do. I also recall them talking about Bloc Party at 1 point.

I dunno, I guess it's a podcast that I wouldn't expect to go back to, but I have and grown to enjoy it more and more. I suppose part of it is when they rip certain artists work the gossip part. Part of it is the personalities being funny. And maybe part of it is the unknown stuff they do play once in a while.

ProgTopiaThis is the personal podcast and blog for Mark Ashby, whose the moderator of The Prog Squad podcast. Mark talks about a lot of underground progressive rock and metal, and does interviews on this podcast. And while I can't claim to have invested the time to check out every podcast he's made, like TPS podcast, the ones I have checked out, like the Yossi Sassi and Orphaned Land episodes, along with Anneke Van Giersbergen and his ProgPowerUSA interviews have all been enjoyable.Black N White Neon Knight ProgcastThis is DownFall and another YouTube Album reviewer's new podcast they are uploading to YouTube. They started out a couple of months ago, under another name which I'm forgetting, but under this new name/youtube url, they have seemed to have abandoned/transitioned from.But these are much more in-depth discussions about albums and artists. I imagine they are intended to do more album analysis than their own personal YouTube channels may do, along with just having a 2nd voice and conversation with someone else about said band or album.They did some Black Sabbath discussions originally under the other channel name, but in the last week or 2 they made relatively in-depth discussions about Iron Maiden and Yes. Which especially Yes, I'm always up for hearing discussion about.I guess we'll see where they go/how far/long they stick with this. But certainly initially there is a lot to like about this new Podcast.WTF Podcast with Marc Maron
I just stumbled upon this podcast from an interview Marc Maron did with Charlie Kaufmann about his career and of course new film Anomalisa. Marc is a comedian himself has his own TV Show in fact on IFC titled "Maron."

I guess this podcast may have been a 1-off for me, but then I heard he had Cintra Wilson on recently, so it has given reason to check it out again. Cintra of course being someone close-to Kevin Gilbert (an ex-girlfriend).

I suppose the jury is still out as some stuff I'm not sure will kill my interest or not (he seems to speak with a lisp or something).

-----------------YouTube-----------------Some of the regulars:

MinistryofMusic: Still a regular, multiple videos everyday on my playlist. The guy just knows how to review albums and with my taste, and rather open-minded taste. And the frequency. I totally applaud him, but I also just hope he can keep it up. The only thing with so many requests, it does seem to cause long waits. So much, a request may be made, and it could be a month or 2 before he is able to make the review. But patience I suppose. I do enjoy when he makes a "Next 10 Album Reviews" video, which gives you good idea what's coming up in the next 10-12 days.

CoverKillerNation: I have become rather addicted to this guy's channel. From the extensive number of reviews he makes, to even variety. He's usually pretty easy on the albums, which is cool. I mean, it seems he speaks kindly of most of the reviews he makes. But I've grown to be fine with that, even if it's a band or album I don't care that much for.

He's been covering a lot of prog especially, which I will obviously check out. He also is doing some series, namely Rush and Porcupine Tree.

Talking about the prog and obscure bands namely, is great to see, I think largely due to his subscriber number being over 40,000 now. Many of those bands will get exposure they normally wouldn't. A bit like The Needle Drop I suppose.

His channel having its popularity almost feels like 1 of us actually is speaking to the masses. And for that, I totally applaud him and wish him as much success as he can get.

FoxyPancakes: This channel is starting to be more active. I get the sense the host, Darien, is starting to make the channel more of a priority for her. Granted, it's still almost entirely Metal, but maybe more kinds of Metal? older Metal? I liked her 2016 Anticipation video, and I commented about some bands like Pain of Salvation and Fates Warning, and she commented back, she is looking forward to those as well.

New subscribed/Newly mentioned Channels

FreqsTV
This channel I 1st noticed about a year ago when I saw they had some live on tour footage/documentaries. Steven Wilson I recall, and some others like God is an Astronaut. And then within the last month, they started a new series titled "Into the Machine" which are weekly short 5-minute documentaries on modern progressive rock artists. From Opeth, Between the Buried and Me, Leprous, and Haken to Periphery next week.

I really dig these, even if they are only 5-minutes. The artists they feature? I can totally see why. I mean sure, if I was choosing artists to feature, I would probably include some others as Haken and Periphery aren't exactly favorites of mine (although at 1 point I did like Periphery, before they changed singers, etc). But as far as fans of modern progressive rock and metal, they definitely make sense.

Especially the whole modern element to them, the potential for this series could be huge. Many of the artists, that are still active at least, could be included from this list I made. But I just suggested a few on twitter like The Dear Hunter, Oceansize, Pure Reason Revolution and Three

And I like how they include info and a link to each artist's newest album, etc.

I just hope they can keep making them. Even if it isn't once-a-week, but just 1 or 2 per month.

With the footage they use, I wonder if they have some help or when a band comes on tour, they are able to shoot footage with them, etc. Especially the bands from Europe I suppose.

I dunno, I guess I'm hopeful about Into the Machine and their channel has a fair amount of coverage on modern prog and prog metal, I'm hoping it gains as much of a following as possible. I mean a channel that does documentaries on modern prog? that is totally up my alley, but never really been made before. The closest thing I can think of is "ProgRockTV" from Phil Satterly in the late 90's. And that show, I never saw because I didn't live in Colorado. But "Into the Machine" is a little bit like that, which I'm totally a fan of.

Screen Rant
This is a channel I recently came across, that per its name, is about movies and television. And it is a little like Watchmojo.com in that it seems to include Top 10's and such. But it's a little more personalized I guess.

edit: it may just be about movies, and not television.

At any case, the videos are well made, and the lists or topics they cover are good. Largely stuff the fans talk about, that are rumored or secrets in hollywood. Stuff that WMJ will cover, but maybe not quite as fan-based and maybe not even as in-depth? I dunno, but I guess in the brief time I've been watching this channel, I do really enjoy it.

Stuff like movies that were never made, conspiracies, mistakes, etc. I wonder how much they've done with Independent films. Probably some stuff, but I haven't invested the time/research yet to find out.

Off the Record
This guy named Paul makes mostly Vinyl-showing videos. I've been subscribed for probably close to a year, and while his taste is hit and miss with me, I do enjoy his videos. They usually are well made and his dialog usually is engaging and entertaining enough about each album.

There are a lot Vinyl video channels out there, and some focus more on my taste than others, but for some reason, OTR's channel is among the best. I guess part of that is I can relate to him as a vinyl collector and one that enjoys hearing about others experience finding vinyl, namely in Record stores.

Chris Stuckmann
This guy has a movie review channel that is quite popular. He's quite active for one thing, and his videos are pretty informative, while not being excessively long (which I suppose has its pros and cons).

I guess in my search for movie review channels, this channel is about as good of one out there. Now, I'm not sure how much he covers as far as Independent Film, and I thought I notice he did some reviews of older movies:

Yes, Spiderman, and The Wicker Man (2006) with Nicholas Cage, in sort of a razzy type thing called "Hilariocity."

I imagine the movie review channels on YouTube, like the Music Review channels, often focus largely on new movies (like The Needle Drop does with new albums), but I suppose there are some out there that cover as much if not more from the past. Good or bad, although I would imagine more so Good.

I wonder what he thought of stuff like Ghost World or The Jacket for example,

What the Flick?!
This is a panel-discussion channel mostly about movies, but also sometimes about Television reviews. The cast varies it seems, but among the regulars, Christy Lemire who I know best from when she sat in with Richard Roeper on At the Movies in the mid 2000's (when Roger Ebert was ill). She currently also writes for Rogerebert.com

Also Ben Mankiewicz who was briefly on the newly casted At the Movies in the late 2000's along with the another Ben, Ben Lyons.

And another 1 of the regulars is this guy named Alonso Duralde, who is someone who seems familiar, but I can't recall where from. But I think he may be the most entertaining guy on this channel. At least he highly endorsed the new Charlie Kaufmann movie Anomalisa, and also gave props to Synecdoche, NY, which the rest of the panel liked, but still don't consider the masterpiece that I did from the 1st time I saw it.

The Moon Tune
A music reviewer, who while his taste only crosses over to mine to a point, I do enjoy still. I guess why being he is pretty brutally honest, without coming across too animated. And he has been receptive to my comments, which not all YouTubers seem to be.

And I guess he's starting to be more active this year, which should only have me going back to his channel more.

Bull Moose Store
I'm including this channel, mostly per the great and thorough Record Store Day Videos Chris Brown makes from the store he's at in the great New England state of Maine. He makes them for both the main April Record Store Day and the November Black Friday Record Store Day.

Now, they are never short, sometimes going well over an hour, but I've come to expect that.

But as a whole, seeing those videos 2 or 3 times a year from him are always looked forward to. He shows pretty much everything Bull Moose has received, a couple of days before RSD, which admittedly, isn't every RSD special item unfortunately, and probably not every single item they get there since some come in the day before, etc.

But he shows so much, it's usually worth watching to see what something may look like or some info about an item he adds. A rare b-side, color, track list change, visual or novelty thing about it, etc.

And he actually does include a lot of facts about music, I suppose logically since he works at a Record Store anyway. But also per his taste, which includes some progressive rock and metal.

I'm not sure if their channel may start doing more special release stuff, as Chris just made a video a couple of weeks ago for the special Rhino releases that came out, including The Monkees Cereal '45 and the calendar. That and a cd boxed set.

Maybe that was a 1-off, but it would be neat to have Chris or someone else make more special videos like that beyond the 2 RSD ones.

The Bull Moose channel has also recently included some nice little short interviews and such with consumers or employees. I suppose it's a little like the Amoeba Music channel of "What's In My Bag?" kind of thing. Something like that would be cool to do in Minnesota at The Electric Fetus or Cheapo, but time/money of course. Maybe I will one day when I'm retired, lol.

If I'm ever in Maine, I will have to try and go there.

Stereola Music Reviews
This guy is music reviewer from the UK who I noticed in 2015 did a review of Everything Everything's new album Get to Heaven. I remember subscribing to his channel after that as he really enjoyed that record like I did. Although after that, I didn't find myself checking out that many other of his reviews, just based on taste.

However, he made 4 or 5 of these End of Year List videos in December and they were all quite good. Mainly per the editing and new format/approach he is using now. He added graphics and live clips and included key tracks, and such, which added a lot.

I suppose it still may partially come down to personal taste and what albums he reviews, but I definitely enjoy his channel a fair amount more now.

I even did like his interview/chat with The Needle Drop, which if he does more of those type of interviews, it'll just add to my interest in his channel.

Buzz Feed Video
This channel is the extension of the website http://www.buzzfeed.com/ , which is an entertainment website. I have seen a ton of comments on the WatchMojo.com videos about how they are just a poor man's version of Buzz Feed, which I can kind of see, at least the website. The videos though on this channel are next to nothing like the WMJ videos I watch.

They are mostly sketches or little clips of people trying foreign foods. Or just odd, awkward yet curious situations people can get in. Sometimes playing to the Stereotypes of races, cultures, etc.

I guess my feeling on this channel it's very hit and miss. Once in awhile they will have some cool sketch or feature on it. And it is active. But I guess at this point, they don't score nearly as high with my interest as WMJ does with the Top 10's and whatnot.

Now, I suppose given I haven't been subscribed that long, perhaps some of their older videos may have more Top 10's and other music related things I would find appealing, but I'd have to do a fair amount of research likely to find out.

MrLtia1234
This is often 2, but maybe at times only 1? Or even 3 guys making album reviews together. Mostly about progressive rock, and the majority being older progressive rock. I believe they are from the UK per their accents.

I recall seeing their channel and it was a bit like MinistryofMusic's channel on impression in terms of their history of reviews having reviewed dozens of the classic prog records. I forget how many of them I marked to check out at work.

I did check out some of theirs, and for various reasons haven't gone back. I recall 1reason being they were not incredibly striking in their enthusiasm from memory. They seemed kind of laid back and sarcastic from memory.

Also I think their accents and the lower level of audio hurt my ability to understand and follow everything they said.

But at the same time, I may not have checked out enough of their reviews at this point. They have reviewed a lot, from Rush, to ELP to Tull to King Crimson. Crimson namely, as it seems they title many episodes after "In the Court of the Wenton King" which often throws me off thinking it's always a Crimson album review.

I suppose it's a priority thing, and I need to invest some more time with their channel, but at least on the surface, this could become one of the better channels out there, especially for progressive rock and depth/frequency/activity (they have 215 videos which is quite a lot).

College Humor
This is a channel I've known about for many years, as many have. I have no clue how many subscribers they have, 5 million? maybe more.

edit: over 10 million.

Anyway, when I first was exposed to them, they made videos I always would watch. I think the best or my favorite from a few years ago being "Too Many Avengers" video. Like all their videos, it was animated. That video is/was comedic gold, I think largely per all the different animated characters they brought into the Avengers party. Captain Caveman and Plastic Man among them.

And the Samuel L Jackson impression was gold.

Their channel reminds me a lot of the How It Should Have Ended channel. Short animated sketches poking fun at Hollywood and pop-culture.

I can't foresee not watching this channel, but at the same time, it seems like the last few years, their sketches have been hit and miss. But even if they make 1 video a year I find good, it's a channel I will want to keep up with.

Gideon Strumpet
This is another Vinyl-centric if almost entirely all vinyl showing videos channel. I know I subscribed to it for good reason, maybe because the guy whose channel it is, shows a lot of vinyl, and makes videos relatively often. On the other hand, I haven't spent enough time checking out a lot of his videos. I think he has taste that includes some classic rock and prog (go figure), and maybe some modern stuff, but I can't recall.

Part of the issue with Vinyl videos is, I of course don't fathom checking them out while I work given if it's just audio, and I like to actually SEE the records they are talking about and SHOWING, it kind of defeats the purpose.

But I think it has as much to do with time and discipline to check them out soon, and get a better take on this channel. I hopefully will soon.

Berklee College of Music
The renowned music college (at 1 point, largely Jazz) YouTube channel is often worth checking out. I enjoy the short little clips asking students what music they are listening to, or what piece/song they auditioned with, etc probably most.

The performances, while I'm sure are often great, are a matter of taking the time, which sadly, I don't often do. They are frequently of jazz standards or just pieces that are reproduced or interpreted. Sometimes not jazz, but rock, pop, metal, and even prog occasionally.

A nice channel, that is hit and miss, but certainly still worth paying attention to.

Trippy McMuffinMinistryofMusic's brother's channel, which I have enjoyed some of his reviews here and there. His channel covers a decent amount of the progressive rock that Ministryof does, but also some different stuff as well. He also talks about movies, which of course Ministry does not.

I try to check out his reviews as much as I can, although his style is a bit different in some ways. His voice is different for one thing. His accent is a little thicker, which makes it at times a little harder to follow. But overall, I still can follow what he talks about.

I suppose part of it is frequency and then just specifics. Like if he reviewed some of the stuff his brother has that I requested, of course I would totally be up for checking it out. Marillion or Kevin Gilbert of course.

Or even with film, the likes of Ghost World, Caddyshack, Synecdoche, NY, etc...any of my all-time favorites, I would totally be on board with. And that's not to say the movie stuff he's reviewed has been bad, just not as much of a priority, for me.

But his channel certainly has a lot of good reviews, and I imagine more will be coming. But I suppose his interest or priority for his channel may not quite be what his brother's is? I dunno. Maybe it's just a bit more of a work in progress, like my own (I can hardly talk, as I struggle to find time to make videos and my format namely).

Seqouiaflame
Another Vinyl centered channel I came across recently, and like some of the others on this recent update, it's a channel when I have watched some of the videos, I have certainly enjoyed. The taste and the hosts personality.

I get the sense the dude who runs this channel enjoys collecting older vinyl and in a lot of kinds of genres. From soul, to jazz fusion, to pop, to metal even.

Another Vinyl channel I mean to watch more of, but have not yet. If I could just listen to audio on Vinyl videos, I'd probably be a lot more familiar with this channel at this point. Maybe I'll try to soon.

The Vinyl Corner
Like Seqouiaflame and some others on this new update, this is another Vinyl Community channel it seems. The host is from somewhere in Europe. Maybe Germany? I'm not certain based on his accent.
I recall the host collects a lot of vinyl, and a good amount of it is Metal.

So I suppose this would be one of the better Metal Vinyl channels out there. Although from memory, it's not exclusive to Metal.

Anyway, like some of the newer Vinyl-based channels, The jury is still out on them to a point, but it's also just a matter of myself finding the time to watch them. Or finding Vinyl video, audiorips at work, being something I enjoy.